"I Was Engaged When I Was Five"

October 29, 2013—National Geographic Emerging Explorer Kakenya Ntaiya was destined to become a child bride. Engaged at the age of five and expected to marry at puberty, she underwent the painful ritual of female genital mutilation as dictated by Maasai tradition. But Kakenya saw a better life for herself and was determined to change her destiny through education. Now an activist with a Ph.D., Kakenya has returned to her Kenyan village and established a boarding school to educate young girls and save them from becoming child brides.

"I Was Engaged When I Was Five"

October 29, 2013—National Geographic Emerging Explorer Kakenya Ntaiya was destined to become a child bride. Engaged at the age of five and expected to marry at puberty, she underwent the painful ritual of female genital mutilation as dictated by Maasai tradition. But Kakenya saw a better life for herself and was determined to change her destiny through education. Now an activist with a Ph.D., Kakenya has returned to her Kenyan village and established a boarding school to educate young girls and save them from becoming child brides.

These girls are going to be forced into marriages. They are going to be mutilated. And I noticed...I was like...this is a crisis. This is a global crisis and something has to happen.

We work in a small Maasai community that is about 250 miles away from Nairobi. It's very rural.

In a place like our community, the girls are just prepared for marriage. As soon as she starts walking she's sweeping the house, she's cooking for people, she takes care of other siblings. She's constantly doing what would make her a perfect mother.

And with this expectation, at the time they reach puberty they are prepared actually for marriage. The undergo through the female genital cutting, which is a horrible practice that happens to them. And after that, she is married.

The statistics say that among the Maasai over 90% of girls who are under fifteen are married. Some of them are even married when they are nine-years-old.

I grew up in the community. I was engaged when I was five-years-old. Was suppose to be married when I was twelve. And I went through the female genital cutting. I understand what it is that girls would go through.

If you don't get cut, there's a stigma. And that stigma stick with your family, your father and everybody around you family would carry it forever. So I told me father, "If you don't let me go to school, I'll run away and you will remain with the stigma." And so he agreed. I did go through the cutting and I went to school.

I knew for me that the thing that made a difference in my life was an education. Being able to push against all odds, getting a graduate degree, being in school has made a difference for me. I learned that female genital cutting was outlawed in Kenya. And I'm thinking, "Really?" Because, I didn't know about it. And that just...to me I knew that, wow, all the girls that are going through that horrible practice, they should know. They should know these things.

SOT: Girls singing

I knew that the very best thing that I could do for the women, for the girls in my village was to give them an education.

SOT: Girls singing

They have right to go to school. They have the right to not be forced into early marriage. They have the right not be mutilated. They have the right to be children.

We started our program by starting a boarding school. I knew that when you put the girls in a boarding school, bye-bye to milking cows in the morning! [Laughs] Bye-bye to feeding everybody before you go to school. She would just take care of herself.

They're out-performing in the district. They are at the top. And people for the first time are focusing on the girls. Imagine, they've never known that female genital cutting is against the law. They've never known that there are consequences. These laws are not taught in the schools and the kids doing know about it. But now the girls are like, "Wow! If this is what is happening, I am not going to go through it!" And when the father says no, we help them. We help them go through the system.

And we ask them, "What are your dreams?" One wants to be doctor, one wants to be a lawyer. We ask them, "So would you be lawyer if you got married at twelve?" And they're like, "No. We have to keep going in school." And, this is what is really amazing about our trainings because we know that when you give girls information—vital information that they are not getting anywhere—they make the right choices. They make the right decisions.

When need to tell that girl that your dream is not ending in marriage. It's ending what you what you want to become.

"I Was Engaged When I Was Five"

October 29, 2013—National Geographic Emerging Explorer Kakenya Ntaiya was destined to become a child bride. Engaged at the age of five and expected to marry at puberty, she underwent the painful ritual of female genital mutilation as dictated by Maasai tradition. But Kakenya saw a better life for herself and was determined to change her destiny through education. Now an activist with a Ph.D., Kakenya has returned to her Kenyan village and established a boarding school to educate young girls and save them from becoming child brides.